Student Profile: Alvin Chan
Why did you choose to study with Experience Haus?
I chose Experience Haus because I needed the relevant skills to become a UX/UI designer. I decided to switch shortly after graduating from Industrial Design in summer 2018 because I thought the scope for innovation and improvement was diminishing in designing physical goods. Digital, or UX/UI design, seemed a lot more exciting and profound – nearly everyone has a smartphone or computer so that’s a good start. My friend Dimitri also studied with Experience Haus and recommended it to me so I jumped on.
After finishing the Product Design course, I knew there was a new Product Management course so I signed up to that too, because it is beneficial to know the methodologies and personnel businesses utilise to design their products or services.
Did you know what you wanted to achieve before you embarked on the course? What did you enjoy most about the course?
Yeah, I wanted to become a UX/UI Designer. I know this sounds very salesman-like, but if it wasn’t for the course, I wouldn’t have been able to share my UX research and design process during my job interviews, talk about what I did like user interviews, usability testing, and interface design. I wouldn’t stand a chance with only presenting the work I did in uni, and certainly wouldn’t have landed my UX design job.
What did you enjoy most about the course?
Learning the relevant processes like experience mapping, user flows, and applying it to a live brief from a startup was really enjoyable. More often or not, a lot of these vocational courses ask you to apply what you learnt to a theoretical project that came from your own thinking, which frankly, isn’t enough.
Also learning with fellow course mates who come from different backgrounds, be in a senior designer, marketing manager, or someone else straight out of uni like me made it more interesting too.